SleepingUgly

Day 3 – Sea Day

Here is the Celebrity daily for today, along with an insert about the deals you can receive if you book your next cruise onboard

We woke up a bit later today, around 8.30 am or so.  Really feels great to be catching up on our sleep, as back at home, we’re usually in bed anywhere between 11-11.30 pm but have to wake between 5.30-6 am.  I probably could have actually slept a bit longer but the sun peeking in through the curtains woke me up (our bed is right next to the balcony and I slept on the side right next to it).  I had planned on bringing clothes pins or large binder clips to hold the curtain in place to block out the light shining through, but as you know, my planning wasn’t exactly on par those last few days.  Oh, well.  Am I going to complain that I was woken up by bright sunlight at 8.30 am on a cruise ship in December, welcoming me to another day of 80 degree temps?  I think we know the answer by now. 

Dh and I went to breakfast around 9 am.  All the girls chose to sleep in that day, even the little one.  Oceanview Café was much more crowded today than it was yesterday, most likely because we got there about one hour later, but still manageable.  There were also only two of us so it was easier for us to find a place to sit. 

Once again, dh made a beeline to the ready-to-made omelet / eggs station, while I headed for the congee, to be followed by scrambled eggs and grilled tomatoes.  By the way, what is UP with the scrambled eggs anyway on this ship?  Why were they served in a pot and why were they also so friggin’ soupy?  Didn’t know that scrambled eggs came in its own juice.  It’s a good thing I love eggs and was usually too lazy to stand in line to order freshly-made scrambled eggs, so I just made do with watery eggs.  Actually, I always felt like I was letting down the folks at the omelet station when I placed my order, which would be mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes, mixed with some scrambled eggs.  No cheese and no fancy omelet please.  The guy taking my order would be all aghast, gasping “No omelet?!?  Just scrambled?!?”  I think he really wanted to press his hand to his heart and, if there had been a fainting couch behind that counter, he would have made good use of it.  So, rather than disappoint and/or offend the egg gods, I just stuck with pre-made, watery scrambled eggs most days.

Anyway, after breakfast, dh decided to go to the casino to check out what this advertised poker tournament was all about.  I went back to the cabins and woke up the girls.  It was around 10 am by now so, as an old fart, I thought it was well past time to get up.  For teenagers however, they had at least 4-5 hours more of sleep left in them, but I dragged all of them out of bed by opening up their curtain in a very dramatic fashion and letting in all that glorious Caribbean sunshine.  You’d think I was waking vampires from their crypt, from the noises they made and the angry glares sent my way.

Anyway, once they finally were up and (somewhat) presentable to polite society, we went back up to the Oceanview Café so they could grab a bite to eat.  It was almost 10.30 am by now but there was still a lot of food set out, so I’m not sure what they mean by breakfast going from 7-10 am, and then “late breakfast” from 10-11 am.  It looked like the same thing to me.

Once the girls had their fill, we wandered up to the Sky Lounge, where Celebrity’s Family @ Sea program was hosting a Decorate Your Own Christmas Ornament event.  This turned out to sound like it would be more fun than it actually was. We got to the Sky Lounge and there were already a few people there.  A Fun Factory (I think) personnel was standing at a table with make-your-own ornaments from Oriental Trading.  These were the little foamy or wooden types.  For some reason, I had thought we’d get REAL, round / circular Christmas ornaments to decorate.  They also had some glitter pens and glue sticks and markers for us to use, but definitely not enough for everyone who showed up.  I mean, if you are providing 20-25 ornaments for folks to decorate, shouldn’t you have more than 4-5 markers to hand out?

Anyway, the girls and I found a spot right next to the expansive Sky Lounge windows and decorated our ornaments.  The girls did ornaments and I decorated one of those foamy picture frames.  There were directions for me to follow.  Ugh, more thinking.  What kind of vacation is this anyway? 

In the end, we had a good time.  I mean, where else can you decorate (lame) ornaments with the Caribbean Sea as your backdrop?  We also got some great, free (relatively speaking) souvenirs out of it.  Plus, it is always enjoyable to spend time with just my girls.  Not that we don’t love dh, but nothing beats girl time.  I took the three of them to Disney World a couple of years ago to celebrate the little one turning five - just the four of us - and it was probably one of our best vacations ever.  I’m pretty sure dh had a nice five days to himself at home as well, so no need to lose any sleep for him.

We were done with our ornaments in about 20 minutes, and just in time.  I really wanted to go see what the Destination Presentation was all about this morning so, once the girls had their fill, we went to the Celebrity Theater a little before 11.30 am.  This was apparently a continuation of the talk from yesterday, so today’s presentation covered just the three last islands we would visit: Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts.  Even though I had been to all three places before, I figured this may be a good opportunity to learn a bit more about each place.  Little did I know but this was not a cultural or educational presentation, but a ruse to get me to purchase shore excursions from Celebrity.  Ugh.  I am more than just a wallet, Celebrity!  We got bored after a while – and the oldest was confused … “Island of Spies?  Does Grenada have, like, spy schools there or something?” – we decided to skedaddle out of there.

I forgot to upload the Celebrity Daily for our first day at sea (December 22) so here it is ...

The daily included this letter from the captain regarding our change of port for the first day

57 minutes ago, CI66774 said:

Great review. Really love your writing style. Great photos! Thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us!

Thank you!  Really appreciate your kind words!

Linda

2 hours ago, Sheal said:

What???  You don't eat stir fry at breakfast?  I guess it is just us white folks then, or maybe just me.  I don't think I have ever seen anyone else eat it. 

 

And your comment about the meow mix was pretty kind, I thought it look more like something the cat might have thrown up after a long day hunting.  Like what our company cat used to do.😯

 

 

Haha, I'm sure it's fine to have whatever you want for breakfast.  I mean, I have scrambled eggs and toast for dinner some nights, and who didn't eat cold pizza for breakfast in their 20s?  I just wanted used to seeing stir-fry set out at breakfast time, but I'm sure it was tasty!

Ugh, I would hate to see what a cat would spit up - before, during or after hunting.  And a company cat?!? 

Linda

Day 2 – Sea Day (cont.)

Didn’t take many pictures today because I was just super lazy and totally forgot that I should be taking pictures, so sorry about that!  We just hung out by the pool for most of the day.  WARNING ... rant coming up – I wish people would not smoke / vape where they are not supposed to (i.e., sitting in the hot tub) and I wish that when security or other Celebrity personnel see this taking place, they do something about it.  It is extremely frustrating to see people breaking the rules so blatantly and nothing being done about it, even though Celebrity staff members are right there, watching them.  I also wish the music by the pool wasn’t blasting at 50,000 decibels the entire day.  It just got annoying after a while, especially when the bands were playing their sets and you could barely carry on a conversation with the person next to you without having to shout to be heard.  I mean, I love music as much as the next person, but can we possibly turn things down a bit? 

OK, rant over.  Back to my lame review of our first lazy day at sea.  So after lunch, dh and I walked down to the Shore Excursion desk to see what the ship had to offer in terms of activities in St. Thomas.  We didn’t really see anything we liked so decided that we would just go to a beach that day.  Decision made, we went back upstairs to our loungers to – what else? – relax some more after having spent so much energy and used so many of our brain cells making that super-tough and life-changing decision.  Whew, almost broke out into a sweat there.

We left the pool around 3 pm and went back to our room where, as you can see, my oldest daughter and I proceeded to pass out on the balcony.  Really, if all I did on these cruises was nap and eat, I’d be the happiest person in the world.

After our fifth nap of the day, we got up to shower and get ready for that night’s show and dinner.  It was evening chic night so we all had to dress up a bit.  Really, after a day of being lazy and relaxing in the sun, the last thing I wanted to do was to put on a cocktail dress and my heels.  But, rules are rules, so we purtied ourselves up as much as we could and went to the 7 pm show.

That evening’s entertainment was a group called December 63, which is comprised of four young men who sing mostly Frankie Valli songs.  Now I love Franki Valli, and I listen to songs from the 50s and 60s all the time, to the point where all my children are well-versed in REAL classic rock-n-roll.  So we all know Frankie Valli and were really looking forward to this show.  Well, maybe except my husband, who much prefers AC/DC and Metallica and Queen, but since he married me, he knows what he’s in for and is usually a good sport about things like this.  Besides, they were serving drinks in the theater.

The little one decided that we should sit in the VERY FRONT ROW, so that’s where we sat.  The show started soon after we sat down, and I have to admit, it was pretty entertaining.  I know some folks may disagree and think the show was cheesy and the singing not that great, and they’d probably be right, but we were entertained and the little one loved all the songs and was singing along so, as a mother, that meant the world to me.  At one point, one of the young men came over to my oldest daughter and took her phone up on the stage and started recording the group, singing into her phone.  That was a pretty funny moment, and definitely something memorable for all of us.

After the show, the boys were outside, greeting audience members and taking pictures.  They were game and took pictures with all our girls.  Super nice kids and very entertaining, in my opinion, so I highly recommend you go see their show if they are on your sailing.

And here are dh and me, in our evening chic wear.  Proof that we abided by the dress code so the fashion police don't issue us citations.

We then proceeded to the MDR for dinner.  Sorry but I forgot again to take a picture of the menu that night.  I also don’t remember what I had for a starter, but I did have the pasta for the entrée and it was super yummy.  Dessert was some kind of cake that I think was OK but wasn’t too exciting.  In fact, I didn’t find most desserts to be memorable on this cruise, with the exception of the French Napoleon (as opposed to the Japanese Napoleon … is there any other type of Napoleon?) served in Oceanview Café one day for lunch.  That dessert was truly delicious and worth invading Russia for.  I found it only that one day in the buffet but couldn’t track it down anywhere or anytime else.  Rats.  But my scale definitely thanks you.

After dinner, the oldest and the youngest went back to the room to go to bed as they were both tired from having spent most of the day at the pool and in the sun. The oldest was probably also tired from having napped for 10 hours during the day.  The middle child went to the X Club (for 13-17 year olds); she had gone there earlier in the day and already met some new friends, so she went back to check things out for the night.  She also stopped by the library to get a book to read for the duration of our trip.  Yes, she is a book nerd, whereas my oldest thinks reading the directions on a package of pasta is akin to reading War and Peace.

Anyway, my husband and I took this opportunity to walk around the ship a bit and explore.  The silent disco was taking place in the Grand Foyer.  We watched for a bit and I thought everyone looked rather silly, and swore up and down that I would never do that, but of course, I would be proven wrong in a few days.  And it was a lot of fun!

Sorry I didn’t take so many pictures, but we ventured into the solarium, the Sky Lounge (got a drink, natch), the fitness club and the spa.  We somehow got ourselves stuck inside the gym / spa area as it closed up at 11 pm and we couldn’t find our way back out, except through a crew hallway / doorway.  We felt like such rebels.  OK, 40-something rebels who have to take multivitamins and wear reading glasses, but rebels nonetheless.

After all that excitement, we decided to head back to the room and go to bed.  We were to set our clocks / watched forward one hour that night, to prepare us for upcoming island time.  Tomorrow, another sea day, and we do a lot more than nothing.  I promise!

2 hours ago, micheleata said:

 

This is so funny...I love your writing style.   I thought the same thing when we sailed in Concierge.  Sometimes they would leave a plate with seafood on it in the room.   Why would they leave seafood out in an empty room for hours?   We hardly touched them, and I would have requested cheese and crackers, but we were too full from everything else that we didn't need anything extra.  Can't wait to read more....

Those canapes became a running joke with all of us, especially when we would get guacamole with two tortilla chips.  By the time we got back to the room, the guacamole was runny.  I probably should have asked for just cheese and crackers, or some simple fruit, but figured there was enough food elsewhere on the ship so didn't want to create more work for Joaquim.  Besides, we got a kick out of seeing what weird treats they could send our way each day, and just little of it they can possibly give to us.

Linda

Day 2 – Sea Day

We woke up this morning around 7.40 am.  That is considered sleeping in for us!  Then again, we were all in bed by around 11 pm the night before, so that is pretty lame.  Welcome to getting old, kids!

Anyway, the almost nine hours of sleep really felt good.  Think it was a combination of our being super tired from all that travel, the gentle rocking of the ship and the super-comfy mattress topper that Joaquim had put on our beds for us, that helped us sleep straight through the night.  Both dh and I woke feeling refreshed and ready to go!  This view from our balcony also did not hurt in getting us excited to start the day

We got dressed and decided to go to breakfast and check out the ship on our own for a bit, before the girls woke up.  Not so fast!  The oldest and youngest (Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum; there may be an 11-year age difference between those two, but it’s scary how alike they are at times) were also awake and came stumbling into our cabin, still half asleep but completely hungry.  We told them to get dressed and they could come to breakfast with us.  Meanwhile, the middle child slept on.

The buffet was busy around 8 am but not overly so.  We were able to get our food quickly and find a table by the windows very easily.  Dh likes to have his over-medium eggs each morning, while I like to start with my oatmeal.  Meanwhile, the oldest child (who absolutely hates eggs - who hates eggs???) was thrilled to find tons of corned beef hash and bacon, and the little one was at the pastry stand, drooling.  I was surprised to find congee (soupy rice) in the Asian section, and that is indeed a breakfast treat, but why the heck did they also have things like lo mein and stir-fry in the breakfast section for Asian foods?  We don’t have that for breakfast!  Seriously, you white people … 🙂 

As we ate, the girls and I talked about what we were going to do that day.  We had all these grandiose plans to do as much as possible, including both trivia and bingo.  After all, that is the only reason why the little one agreed to accompany us on this cruise, because of bingo.  Well, those plans were shot to you-know-where fairly quickly.  We ended up findings loungers right by the pool, near one of the hot tubs, and parked our lazy butts there for pretty much the entire day, getting up only to go to the bar (many times), the bathroom (only when nature forced us) or the Mast Grill (only when the smell of French fries lured us).  By the way, we all had the premium drink package on this cruise so definitely wanted to do our best to get our money's worth. Think dh did that for all of us on his own, actually.

Here is dh at the pool bar ... the time stamp on this picture was 10.07 am.  He was already one hour behind and was not happy. #itsfiveoclocksomewhere

Someone definitely enjoyed her many pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris on the cruise.  Each time she ordered one, she'd make sure to emphasize that she wanted a VIRGIN pina colada.  Yeah, pretty sure she didn't need to emphasize that point with the servers and bartenders.

The weather was pretty nice for the entire day.  It was sunny and warm, slightly breezy at times, but heck – we are sitting by a pool, in our swimsuits, on a ship, heading to the Caribbean, in December.  Not gonna complain, that’s for sure.

That morning, during the captain’s 10 am announcement, he told us that, due to rough weather conditions heading our way from the Gulf of Mexico, it was looking as if it would be tough for us to tender at our first port of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.  As such, he made the executive decision to dock at St. Thomas instead for our first port.  This also meant that, instead of docking at St. Lucia later on, we would have to tender.  Oh, well.  We’ll deal with that when we get to St. Lucia.  For now, we have to try to figure out what to do in St. Thomas instead.  I had done absolutely no research on this island – duh, since it wasn’t on the original itinerary – and the only thing I really knew about the place was that it was good for duty-free shopping.  Well, since I wasn’t interested in doing any shopping on this trip (GASP!!  Did I really just say that?  Ack, wash my mouth out with soap … STAT!), I wasn’t going to waste time in the stores.  So what to do, what to do?  I decided that, later, I would head to the Shore Excursions desk and see what Celebrity had to offer, as much as I prefer to not book excursions through the cruise ship.

Around midday, we got hungry and decided that we’d check out the Mast Grill for lunch.  We got burgers and hot dogs and fries for lunch.  All were very hot and tasty, especially those fries.  I think we all fell in love with those fries during the cruise, even my dh, who usually does not care for French fries at all. 

Our assistant waiter Dexter was working the grill and he recognized us right away.  I’ve got to give it to those folks on the ship – they can recognize faces like nobody’s business.  I can’t tell you how many of my husband’s friends I’ve met multiple times, and they can come up to me today and slap me silly and I still wouldn’t know who they are.  I guess it’s all the practice they have, with different guests rotating in and out on a regular basis.  It was quite impressive.

4 hours ago, effinaround said:

Oh Linda! You're a great story teller! Sorry to hear about the car crash. Just like how a bride to be always thwarts the proposal plan, there's always something that seems to get in the way of a smooth vacation countdown. 

 

Are you burnin' rubber on a new set of wheels yet?

Thanks for your compliments and your sentiments!  Heading out shortly to go check out another option as a replacement for my baby! 🙂

Linda

Day 1 – Embarkation (cont.)

OK, let’s try to wrap up the first day here; I’m pretty sure most of you are all pretty bored by now.  Anyway, once we were in our rooms, our luggage started arriving, one by one.  We were pretty much mostly unpacked and organized when it was time to leave for the Muster Drill, which was scheduled to start around 3.15 pm.  I think they need to make it clearer if we are supposed to be at our muster station by 3.15 pm, or if we are to wait for the signal at 3.15 pm (as if it were a real emergency) and then converge on the muster stations then.  We played it safe and left for our muster station (D3) around 3.10 pm.

We headed down to the Tuscan Grille and found that it was already pretty packed with people just sitting around, looking bored.  We found a table near the screen that was pulled down, which indicated to me that they will be showing something on that screen. We sat around and waited, and stragglers continued to wander into the room until it was around 3.30 pm.  At that point, the ship-wide announcement was made that the drill would start.

The first video they showed was some sing-song cartoon about washing your hands.  The only one in the entire room interested and engaged was our eight-year-old, if that tells you anything.  Then came the spy video about safety and rules on the ship.  This is similar to those safety videos they do on airplanes now.  Again, while we all watched, I think the only one who was really entertained was our little one.  I thought some of the safety messages got lost in the stupid storyline and bad acting, but who am I to say.

Once the videos were done (and we all cried with relief), there was the live demonstration on how to use a life jacket, then a little speech from our muster station leader (a woman who is part of the ship’s performance group), and then we were released.  This was probably the only time I truly felt the massive crowd of @ 3000 people on this ship.  I guess everyone was pretty much converged on these two decks and now we were all trying to leave at the same time.  For the most part, people followed the unspoken rules of society and zipper-merged or politely joined the crowd moving upstream.  Of course, you always have those who think they are better / more special than others and they pushed and shoved their way past the crowd so they can get two people ahead of where they originally were, just to stand and wait once again, along with the rest of us.  Repeat to self – we are on vacation; ergo, we will not let idiots annoy us.

Once back in our cabins, we had our introductory meeting with the always-popular afternoon canapes that concierge cabin guests received. 

Um ... were we supposed to have packed a cat with us, because these offerings look like something out of a Meow Mix can.  Of course, I don't own any cats so I'm not sure.  Or perhaps this is supposed to be for the goldfish that is swimming in a bowl somewhere in our room.  Kids - Look for Goldie because it's feeding time for her.  Oh, wait ... that's for us???  Seriously?  My husband wanted to know if maybe we were being punished for something, which is why they sent this to our room.  I couldn't think of anything we had done wrong - except being just way too cool and awesome - so I didn't think that was the reason.  Anyway, we stared at the two plates of (cat) bite-sized offerings for a bit more before deciding that we'd sample the wares ourselves.  I wasn't so brave, but dh and the little one took one for the team and tried out the food and declared they weren't "that bad."  Well, Food Network won't be banging on our door anytime soon, begging to recruit them as judges on their shows, but that was good enough for us - at least we know what they send to us each day is edible and that's all we care about.  We simple folks, yup yup.

Anyway, we finished unpacking and decided we were hungry (believe it or not, even dh and the little one were hungry, after that massive feast they just had), so we went up to the Oceanview Café to grab a snack.  By this time, it had been announced that sail away would be delayed by one hour because we needed to wait for all the other ships docked in front of us to depart first.  This sounded like a lame, fishy excuse to me, but oh well.  Nothing we could do about it anyway.  I figured I could still get some nice photos at 5 pm so no worries.

By 5.30 pm, we were back in our cabin and the ship still had not sailed.  The captain made an announcement at 6.30 pm that we were waiting for just one more ship to depart and then it was our turn.  By then, my pretty sail away photos in the daylight were already a thing of the past so I could care less when we left.  Besides, the little one wanted to catch the show that night so we got ready to go to the theater for the 7 pm show, as we had traditional, late seating in the MDR for 8.30 pm.

The show that evening was an impersonator, and I had to at times check to make sure I hadn’t jumped into a time machine and traveled back to 1985.  I get it – Celebrity is known for having an older audience – but really?  Who still does impressions of George Burns and Johnny Carson these days?  And mixed in between these impersonations of Celebrities We All Love But Have Not Thought of in the Past Twenty Years, he also told some rather off-color, inappropriate jokes.  And then we would get an impression of little ol' innocent Kermit the Frog right after that.  It was just an odd show, but our little one was entertained and the more adult jokes flew over her head anyway so all was good.

As the show was finishing up, we could feel the ship start to move.  Our oldest daughter, who had not been impressed with the entertainment at all, jumped out of her seat so she could go outside to watch the ship depart.  The rest of us waited for a few more minutes until the show was completely finished, and then left our seats.  By the way, Sue Denning was our cruise director and she came out before this first show and afterwards to talk to the audience.  She was a great cruise director – very entertaining, had tons of energy and was quite visible around the ship during the days and especially at nights.  We got to chat with her a few times around the ship – with her complimenting my shoes one evening – and she was a good sport whenever the little one wanted to have her picture taken with her.  I can now see why Sue has such a loyal following of fans.

Anyway, we went to Deck 5 to watch the sail-away.  It was 8 pm and very dark by then, so really not a lot to see besides the lights.  Still, we enjoyed being outside as the ship sailed out of the Fort Lauderdale waterway and out to the Atlantic Ocean.  By then, it was 8.20 pm and we figured we better go back inside for dinner.

As you can imagine, it was absolute chaos in the MDR.  We had been left a card in our cabins, advising us our dining time and our table number.  Nowhere on the card did it say that we should take it with us to dinner that first night.  Thus, a lot of people didn’t have their cards with them and we had to stand in a long line to check in.  People were not happy.  Those with their cards in their hands breezed by in a shorter line.  Even though our card-less line was long, the check-in process wasn’t too bad; we were at the check-in stand in under 10 minutes.  Interestingly enough, near the entrance to the MDR, the line of people with cards was completely backed up.  I’m not sure what was going on there but better communication with guests re: the necessity of bringing cards with them to the MDR that first night would probably have helped to alleviate matters a bit.

We had been assigned to Table 271.  It is on the far left-hand side of the room (as you enter the MDR), very close to the towering wine rack but not too tucked away in the corner that you didn't have a view of the entire room.  We actually had a lovely, expansive view of the whole room.  When I first booked this cruise, I had requested a table for 10, thinking that it would be nice to meet another family, but soon after that, I remembered that I was the president of the Anti-Social Social Club for a reason.  So I called my TA back and requested a table for just the five of us.  This worked out great - we were seated at a table for six, with the one place setting left open the entire time.  In fact, halfway through the cruise, they replaced our six-person table to a smaller, round five-person table that still fit all of us perfectly.

Joseph would be our head waiter for the cruise and Dexter the assistant waiter.  Let me tell you - these two gentlemen became like family members to us.  They were not only friendly and professional and helpful, but also just genuinely good and decent people who joked with my husband and bantered with the girls.  On the few nights when one of the girls chose not to go to dinner with us, Joseph looked truly heart-broken.  They really helped to make the cruise a real pleasure for us, and helped to reinforce our enjoyment of sailing with Celebrity.

Anyway, because of all the chaos in getting into the MDR, and - frankly - I was exhausted as it had been a long day, I totally forgot to take pictures of the menu that night.  I remember I and our middle daughter both had the prime rib as the entree that evening, and I do recall it was very good.  Dh and our oldest had the pork chop and they loved it as well.  The little one, since it was our first night on the ship, had the mac and cheese (which is something I rarely let her have when we eat out).  Service was quite slow and confusing, but that was to be expected for the first night.  All other nights (with the exception of one other night), service was very prompt and efficient.  

We finished dinner around 10.15 pm and, by then, we were all exhausted.  Even though it was our first night on the ship and we still had a lot to explore, all we really wanted to do was to go back to our cabins and go to bed.  Even the little one did not complain about that.  So that's exactly what we did - we trudged back to our rooms and got ready for bed.  And thanks to the comfy mattress topper that Joaquim had put on all our beds, our tired states, and the soothing motion of the ship, we all fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.  It had been a great embarkation day indeed!

22 minutes ago, chamima said:

Did you notice that your boarding pictures have different destinations on the bottom ?

Seems like someone couldn't decide on the itinerary to print as background. 🛳️

Thanks, Chamima, for your kind words!  I wanted to do this because I really enjoyed reading some very detailed, well-written reviews by other CCers, and their input really helped with my planning so I wanted to return the favor to others.  And, of course, help everyone feel as if they are on vacation as well (hopefully), especially during these cold winter months! 

And, yes, I did notice that three pictures say "St. Thomas" and one says "Punta Cana'", haha.  That's because the original itinerary called for a stop at Punta Cana, but the captain changed course on the first sea day, due to weather conditions that would have prevented us from tendering at Punta Cana.  So he made the executive decision to go to St. Thomas instead for our first port.  I'm kind of glad this mistake was made with our boarding pictures because now we'll remember what was the original port, and what was the replacement! 🙂

Linda

10 hours ago, Sheal said:

Your review is so much fun to read.  I was really bummed out at work today to find out they wanted you to work too.:(

 

Thanks for sticking with me, Sheal!  🙂 

Linda

Day 1 – Embarkation (cont.)

Since we were on Deck 15, we just decided to walk down to Deck 9, aft, to find our cabins.  It is at the end of a long, long, loooong, hallway, but it’s all flat with no hills or mountains and in a straight line so very easy to walk. That is, unless the waves are obnoxiously rough, and then you are walking as if you’ve had one or 10 too many gin & tonics.

We found our cabins easily enough and, while I never had time to go and buy Christmas decorations for our doors, we didn’t really need those to make our doors stand out.  You just go straight to the end of the hallway, towards the back (aft) of the ship, and our cabins are right there to your left.  I took pictures of one of the cabins upon entering; this is the room for dh and me.

We also met our cabin attendant Joaquim at this time.  Joaquim is from Goa, India, and was always ready to greet us with a big smile.  He did a wonderful job of keeping our rooms clean and tidy, and seemed to have a radar or sixth sense, in that he always knew when we left our cabins, and would then sneak in and clean and make the beds.  He folded up the girls’ clothes for them, arranged our little one’s stuffed animals on her bed, de-cluttered and organized things on the counters and desk area for us.  He definitely was a great help to us.

Anyway, we asked Joaquim at this time to please put the two beds in one of the bedrooms together, and to keep the two beds in the other room apart.  We also told him that we will need to use the sofa bed for our little one but he was already aware of that.  We also asked him to open up the partition between the two balconies.  This turned out to be a godsend as it doubled our balcony space, although the girls still continued to congregate mainly on just our side, for some reason.

This is what our cabins looked like after Joaquim did his magic.  The bed was pretty much a king-sized bed.  These photos were taken later on during the cruise; in fact, probably our last day or the next-to-last day.  Check out that view of the wake from our balcony! 

Here is the girls' cabin  Note how neatly Joaquim folded up everything for them and made even the little one's bed, with her Paw Patrol blanket tucked in nicely.

We also asked Joaquim if he could open up the main outer door for the two cabins.  The set-up is like this: When you first walk up to the two cabins, you see each individual door that leads to each cabin, but there is a small, open vestibule / hallway outside of these two doors.  There is a main, outer door for this area that is always open / unused.  Now, if the occupants of the two cabins wish to make them connecting, the electrician has to come and “release” the lock on that main outer door so it can open and close.  When that happens and this main outer door is closed, it closes up the area for that small vestibule / foyer between it and the two separate doors that lead to each individual cabin.  Thus, you have privacy from the outside world (as the main outer door is always closed), but the two inside doors (or the main doors to each individual cabin) can be opened and locked in that position, or closed individually for privacy from the connecting room.   

Hope that makes sense, but here are a couple of pictures I took of this “vestibule” area.  This is the view from the girls' cabin, leading towards that main outer door.  Our cabin would be on the other side of their door, in mirror configuration.

This is the view of the "vestibule" from our cabin's doorway

Some more pics of our cabins and the bathroom.  Note the chocolates left on the pillows during turn-down service. 🙂 

18 minutes ago, snow bunny said:

I am enjoying your review as we board her next month for the third time but with newbie Celebrity cruisers!

 

snow bunny

Thank you, and I hope you have a great trip.  I'm sure your friends will really enjoy the Silhouette as well!

Linda

22 minutes ago, DENIE said:

Your photos around the ship are bringing back memories (good ones!) from our cruise in December!

Glad to be of assistance! 🙂

Linda

Day 1 – Embarkation (cont.)

At around 11.45 am, we headed down to the MDR for lunch.  I’m not sure if we just look like fancy concierge folks or what – I don’t think I was walking around with my pinky held up high in the air and calling everyone "dahling" – but they didn’t even bother asking to see our gold Sea Pass cards.  They simply asked how many were in our party and then led us into the dining room.  We were seated at a round table for just the five of us near the windows and were promptly given menus.  They have the same offerings that I’ve seen in menus posted online for the concierge boarding lunch. 

This is not the best picture but we were seated on the side of the ship where guests were lining up to enter the terminal.  At almost 1 pm, there was not a mad rush of people waiting to board.

I didn’t take a picture of the menu (you should be able to find it pretty easily online as it’s been posted by many others and it seems to be the same menu over and over again), but I did take some pictures of my food.  I had the Caesar salad to start, then the short ribs, and the apple pie.  I was impressed with the portion sizes – they seemed to be just the right amount so that you don’t feel too stuffed, and you still have the opportunity to get hungry in time for your next meal.  Which, for me on the ship, took place every two hours.

Service was prompt and friendly at lunch.  Our waiter chatted with us for a bit and told us about his kids back home in Indonesia. 

We finished our lunch in about one hour and went upstairs to check out the Fun Factory for our little one.  The girl working at the front who was welcoming everyone was super nice.  She directed us to the section for kids ages 6-9.  There, I filled out the requested forms while another girl took over and spouted off all the offerings of the Fun Factory.  She sounded like a robot.  I mean, she was not rude, but she also didn’t seem like she was really into her job.  I remember when we sailed on the Galaxy back in 2007, the people working at the Fun Factory were so much fun and always happy to see the kids.  Maybe that’s because there were only around two dozen children total on that sailing so they weren’t too busy, or they really wanted to entice the kids to the Fun Factory so they wouldn’t just be sitting around, bored out of their skulls.  Back then, our two girls begged to go to the Fun Factory most evenings and, even during one port day, they opted to stay on the ship instead of going to yet another beach with their old, no-fun parents.  And whenever we picked them up, the counselors were always encouraging them to return and enticing them with what they will be doing later that afternoon or evening or the next day.  Anyway, I never got that same welcoming / friendly vibe from the girl who spoke with us this time.  And our daughter may have gotten the same vibe because, throughout the entire cruise, every time I mentioned the Fun Factory, you’d think I was threatening to send her to the gas chambers.  She ended up going only twice, and she had a good time, but she never asked to go there voluntarily, unlike her sisters had in 2007.

Anyway, the announcement came around 1.05 pm that the cabins were ready … off we went!!!

Day 1 – Embarkation (cont.)

We went straight up to Deck 12 to check out the pool area first.  It was nice to be able to walk around without a lot of people around.  We enjoyed the views of the surrounding area around Terminal 29 as well.

This was the view from the elevator of the Grand Foyer area as we rode up to Deck 12

Just a few pics of the pool deck area

Views of the surrounding area from Deck 14 and the Sky Lounge

Next year's family Christmas card photo

And in case we didn't know where we all were, Snapchat was happy to inform us

Day 1 – Embarkation (cont.)

I was the last member of our family to board the ship, with dh having been the first.  He likes to rush; I am always fashionably late.  Anyway, by the time I entered the ship via Deck 5, it was like feeding time at the zoo.  Namely, the Celebrity crew members were the starving lions and I was the one piece of steak thrown into the den that they have to fight for.  Seriously, people, back off!!  Yes, you can descend on me with your tray of champagne and greet me with a smile, but everyone else?  GO AWAY!!  Next time, I’ll have to remember to bring a stick so I can beat off all of you.  Yes, I’m looking at you, Mr. Specialty Dining Package Sales Guy and Ms. Photographer and Ms. Fun Factory Representative.  I get it – you’re all doing your jobs, but dude.  I just got on the ship and I want to enjoy the moment, not feel like I’m walking through the night markets in Kowloon, with people yelling at me from all sides, vying for my attention and my business.  Cool your jets and leave me the heck alone for a bit!

Anyway, the first one to find us was the nice young lady with the tray of champagne.  Ah, yes, we meet again, cheap bubbly posing as champagne.  I haven’t seen you since freshman year of college. 

Next up, the specialty restaurant package salesperson, who looked like he’d rather be anywhere but there on Deck 5, trying to sell fancy-schmancy dining packages to sweaty, over-exuberant tourists.  He didn’t even try very hard with me … probably saw me frantically chugging my champagne and was like, “Yeah, we’ll let that one go.  Move away slowly and carefully, and don’t make any eye contact.” 

Then came the Fun Factory representative.  Now, she did have an important job to do – she had to put a bracelet on our youngest daughter’s wrist that indicated her muster station location.  This must be worn at all times by any child under the age of 12 on the ship.  That way, if they are in the Fun Factory or not with their parents in an emergency situation, a staff member will be able to direct them to their correct muster station.  However, this would have been handled better at Check-In, when there is less chaos and excitement of having just boarded the ship.  This poor girl had to practically scream at us what she was doing and why she was doing it, due to all the noise and talking in the background.  I wanted to give her my champagne after she was done, she looked so exhausted, but then I remembered that I had inhaled the thing myself not even a minute ago.  Oops, my bad.

And, finally, the photographer, to capture that “Oh my God … we just boarded a ship and it feels like … I’m still on land” feeling.  We posed dutifully for a few shots.  I don’t care how corny these may be, you have to do these.  Even if it’s just to make fun of yourselves later when you see your pictures on display in the photo gallery.

And, then, after that … nothing.  We were left completely alone and ignored.  We had walked the gauntlet, survived, and were now deemed inconsequential.  Now THIS would have been a good place to put some Celebrity representatives, directing guests where to go and what to do, depending on the time they boarded.  For instance, it was about 11 am for us; they could have told us that we were free to roam around the ship for a bit, and that Oceanview Café on Deck 14 would open for lunch at 11.30 am.  This would also have been a better place for the Specialty Dining package guy to have been standing as I would have given him all of my attention then.  They could have handed out abbreviated versions of the Celebrity Today here as well.  Anyway, it was just kind of odd how we were mobbed in the first two feet of having entered the ship, only to then be ignored after that.  If you hadn’t done any research (and who doesn’t do their research these days anyway … oh yeah, my family), then you would have no idea what to do or where to go after all of this.

Luckily for my lazy family, I knew what to do.  Since we were in concierge cabins, I wanted to go to the Main Dining Room for lunch so we didn’t have to deal with the crush of passengers at the buffet.  We had about 30 minutes or so to kill, so we decided to go up to the top decks to check out the view and the public areas.  So off we went, to the elevator banks. 

2 hours ago, cantstopingcruising said:

Canadians.....

 

How were the lines at customs upon arrival back in Fort Lauderdale?

 

Thanks

I am not Canadian but I am not aware that they separated folks into different lines at customs when we returned to Fort Lauderdale. 

It was pretty much a giant mess.  First, there is a pretty long walk to get from the ship to the main room where the luggage had been placed.  They were sorted by luggage tag numbers so you rush to your section and grab your bags.  You then get in line to move onto the next room, where the customs officials are.  But, wait a minute - there are no lines!  There are only clusters of people, trying to sneak in front of others to get ahead of them.  I think there was originally one line, but the people started forming their own lines / clusters around the entrance to the other room, and no one stopped them!  So it started getting pretty chaotic in there. 

Once we made it to the next room, it was a bit more organized, but there were only three customs officers working.  Porters were shaking their heads and saying they had never seen anything like it.  The funny thing was, other customs officers were there, but they were just sitting around, watching.  I'm not going to complain about them because now I know they were all working without pay at the time, due to the government shutdown, so I am grateful for them having been there at all.  However, the whole operation was just a mess. 

When we finally got up to a customs officer, he was super nice and asked if we had been told about a separate line for Global Entry.  We told him that we had not, and he shook his head.  Guess they didn't create that line due to lack of personnel, but that would have helped us get through that mess much faster.

Anyway, I complained about this after our last Celebrity cruise in 2007 that it seems as if Celebrity just forgets all about you once you disembark.  There was no Celebrity personnel there to guide or direct you, unlike the check-in / embarkation process, where many Celebrity staff members (not terminal personnel) stood around and greeted us as we walked along.  It would really be nice to have at least a few of these folks around during the disembarkation process as well - yes, even in the terminal - so that our last impression of our Celebrity cruise vacation is not one of stress and chaos.

Linda

2 hours ago, Sheal said:

US Dollar will work in all of the ports.  No need to waste time trying to get the local currency.

Only port I have ever used local currency was in Martinque and only because I had some euros lying around.

Agree with Sheal.  We used US dollars on all the islands with no problem.  In Grenada, at the open-air market in town, we bought souvenirs from one lady who had to go searching for change for us in US dollars, but that wasn't really a problem.  Just be sure to note the prices and pay the USD amount! 

Hope you have a great trip!

Linda

5 hours ago, RealBatman said:

I love your writing style, and especially your sense of humour!! Your attention to detail (and the ability to remember it) is impressive! This is easily the most enjoyable review I've read in a long time. I find myself looking forward to each chapter as you go. And with only a few more days until our 12 day cruise on Silhouette, it's a great way to warm up for our trip!

 

Thank you for your efforts!

Thank you so much for the compliments!  I will admit - I took notes on my laptop almost every evening, when we were back in our cabins and relaxing before dinner.  If it was earlier, like @ 4-5 pm, I'd take the laptop out to the balcony and type out there, enjoying the view.  Definitely made it seem less like work.  It also helps to have taken so many pictures as I'll recall little details as I am going through the photos.  We took a total of more than 7,000 pictures on this trip - that's from my phone, my husband's phone, our underwater camera (which we also used for land shots), my oldest daughter's phone and her GoPro (mostly videos).  We have yet to get our hot little hands on our 16-year-old's phone, so there may be quite a few pics there too!

I hope you have a fantastic cruise.  Let me know if you may have any questions.

Linda

8 hours ago, saltymac said:

3 and 4 night dinning packages were available on board they were never advertised, but we got the 4 night package as soon as we boarded.

 

Dale

I'm glad you were able to get those packages!  I'm sure I would have been tempted had I known about them, but since I did not, we just ate mostly in the MDR.  Hope you had a nice cruise!

Linda

Sue Denning was our cruise director on our December 21st sailing.  She was a lot of fun, was very entertaining and had tons of energy.  She was visible around the ship quite a bit, especially in the evenings, always greeting guests with a smile and stopping for a quick chat.

The production shows were Cosmopolitan, Pearl and Life.  They production company also did a fourth show on Christmas.  We saw the Christmas show, and then only Cosmopolitan and Life (not Pearl), and were impressed with certain portions of both shows (especially the aerialists), but some of the singing was truly horrendous.  The songs were mostly well-known ones from the past decades, along with some more recent ones.  They ranged from ballads to pop to a couple of country and then also some rock.  The choreography was apparently not very well done.  For Life, I sat next to my oldest daughter who has done classical ballet and modern / contemporary dance for 14 years and she was just appalled at the lack of skills in some of the dancers and the poor choreography, especially during Life.  I didn't think they were that horrible, but then again, what do I know.  At the very least, the shows were entertaining and a few of the performers truly shined (all of the male dancers and singers were very good; sorry I cannot say the same for the female performers).

I will say - the ship's orchestra was fantastic in all the shows.  If anything, definitely go for them.

HTH!

Linda

Day 1 - Embarkation Day! (cont.)

So, get this.  They actually expect me to work today.  Seriously, people, who do you think you are?  Ugh, the nerve.  And not only am I expected to work, but I actually have to sit in on a meeting for most of the day, where I can't even try to slack off.  Really, what has this world come to???

Anyway, I probably won't be able to post much throughout the day, but wanted to at least provide copies of the first day's Celebrity Daily.  Sorry if the photos didn't turn out so great; I will try to do better with future Celebrity Today postings.  The Today was left in our cabins, on our beds, as they were every night after that.

Here were the inserts for that first day.  I probably won't include for everyday after this, but just wanted to give you an idea of what was included that first day.  Note that no dining packages were offered on this cruise, most likely due to it being a holiday sailing.  

2 hours ago, vickykay said:

So enjoying your review.  Love your sense of humor!

Thank you!  No sure my kids would agree with you about my sense of humor, although they probably have taken after me more than they'd like to admit! 🙂 

Linda

3 hours ago, amitje said:

Love your style!!!

Thank you very much for your kind words!

Linda